The reading
by Hawklan
Summary: Summary: The reading of Sirius Black's will and it's aftermath.
1. Chapter 1

The reading

Summary: The reading of Sirius Black's will and it's aftermath.

Chapter One

Author: Corwin Verner (Hawklan)  
Beta: DeeRose  
Summary: The reading of Sirius Black's will and it's aftermath.  
Disclaimer: The Potterverse belongs to Ms. Rowling, all other persons you might recognize to their creators. All you don´t possibly belong to me. This is written only to get the bunny out of my head and not to make any profit. So if you sue me the only thing I can give you is my negative bank account, but that you can have even without suing me. Just ask :)  
Warning: This story contains some DD bashing, so if you don't like stories in which that happens, don't read on and it is also AU and will not follow canon too much.  
Notes 1: My thanks to Odaroloc he pointed out a few ways to make the reading of chapter one much easier for you :)  
Notes 2: Also many tx to DeeRose for "Beta" reading this chapter.  
Notes 3: tx to DeeRose this chapter was tweaked again a bit.

Chapter One

London, a small office in Diagon Alley

The reading of the last will and testament of Sirius Black, Head of the House of Black  
Kitanaiel Verner looked around her office. It was quite packed with witches and wizard all of whom had received an invitation for this reading.

She was still a bit shocked about the idea that she had to read the will of Sirius Black, her former house mate (and sometimes lover if it suited her). While Sirius had been a prankster all his life she never believed that he had betrayed the Potters. Killed Pettigrew yes; she had never liked that rat so she easily believed that but betraying Lilly and James? Never in his life; dying for them yes but never betray them. James had been more of a family to him than all Blacks together (which honestly wasn't that hard). Kitanaiel had been relived when after Sirius escaped Azkaban he hid in her home for a while telling her the whole story.

Kitanaiel was struck down with grief after he had been killed in the Ministry building, but now only a week later she had to fulfill his last wish of her. With an inner smile she gathered herself and stood up.

"Greetings gentle beings (as there were also a few non-humans in the room), I'm Miss Verner the Solicitor for the estate of Mr. Sirius Black and it is my sad duty to read his last will. You are all here because you are mentioned in his will, but before I can begin. Where is Mr. Potter? He was invited as well."

Dumbledore stood up: "I thought it best for him not to attend, instead spend his summer with his loving family and..."

"Stop right there, before you say anything more you old fart." Verner demanded.

A shocked silence filled the room until an enraged Molly Weasley spoke.

"How dare you, to speak in such a way to …"

"Please stop Mrs. Weasley. I have my reasons and you will all see them soon enough."  
Verner turned to Dumbledore and addressed him. "Lucky for Mr. Potter you have no say in this. Mr. Black was his legal guardian after the death of Lilly and James Potter and because he was never convicted for the crimes the Ministry leveled on him, he still was his guardian until he died last week, now as his solicitor I'm Mr. Potter's legal guardian until the reading has ended."

She looked to Ms. Bones: "Ms. Bones would you be so nice to send a team of Aurors to get Mr. Potter?"  
She gave a small folder to Ms. Bones "And I think after you have read this you will also want to arrest the Dursleys for child abuse."

The head-Auror took the file and after looking through it for a few moments she stood up. "Ms. Verner, if I could use your fireplace please?"

"Of course" the solicitor answered.

The Auror threw a bit of floo powder into the fire and then put her head into the fire. "Mr. Montgomery? Send a squad to the home of Mr. Potter. Arrest his family for the crime of child abuse and bring him to me, if the Dursleys try to resist, use any force necessary. Oh and I also might need HIM, please contact him and tell him I may might need his help. Thank you."  
She turned again to the crowd. "Mr. Potter will be here as soon as possible."

With a grin Ms. Verner spoke, "Good then we can start soon. Until then feel free to get yourself a cup of tea."

30 minutes later

A small pop was heard and a bewildered Harry Potter appeared in the center of the room surrounded by several Aurors.  
The solicitor spoke first, "Greetings Mr. Potter and sorry I have to welcome you to this reading. I'm Kitanaiel Verner a good friend and solicitor for Sirius."

"Reading? What reading?" Harry asked in a quiet voice.

With an annoyed look at Dumbeldore she answered. "The last will and testament of your godfather Harry, it seems your headmaster didn't just not want you here it looks like he didn't even inform you about it. Am I right?"  
"No, he didn't and if I might say so, I'm not surprised he didn't," said Harry sullenly.

Molly gasped.

"He never informs me about anything and I lost my respect for him a while ago, so thank you for getting me out of my prison and thank you Ms. Bones that you finally arrested my jailers and torture masters."  
Molly gasped again "HARRY!"

"Mrs. Weasley, not now please. I'm still mourning my godfather and annoyed about a lot of things I've found out since his death." While saying that he threw a few angry looks at several people (who all swallowed a bit) and strangely a friendly smile to Severus Snape (who was bewildered about that and why he was here at all).

Harry then took a cup of tea and sat on a stool the solicitor had showed him.

After he sat down Ms. Verner spoke again: "Greetings again, now that all who are needed for this are here I hereby open the reading of the last will and testament of Sirius Black, Head of the House of Black."

She sat down and pressed a small button on the muggle device Sirius gave her, a second later a large image of Sirius appeared and started to speak.

"Greetings Harry, my love to you and sorry that you have to sit here now and see this instead of us sitting somewhere and drinking a butterbeer." After pausing for a small smile for Harry he spoke on. "Before I start I also have to say my thanks to Kitty here for all the help she gave me and still gives. So thank you my beautiful kitten and sorry I never asked you the question. Sadly now it is too late."

After the image swallowed a bit he went on. "So I think several of you wonder why you are here?" he asked with a diabolic smile. "Let me start and after I am done with each of you I have to ask you to leave the room because the rest is not for your ears. I will start with something good so please my friend Firenze, please come forward." The image waited for a moment, while the centaur came from the background of the room.

"Hello my old friend, a shame we never can hunt together again, now please accept what I tell you because you more than earned it. Firenze the Centaur for the friendship and all the help you gave to James, Moony and myself I hereby adopt you into the House of Black."

Several shocked gasped were heard.

"So Firenze Black, as I am the head of the family I grant your branch of our House the grounds, owned by the Blacks, known as the Forbidden Forest. From now on you and your offspring will be known as the Laird Black of the Forbidden Forest. The only request I add to that is that you deny access to it to the Headmaster of Hogwarts." Again several gasps were heard.

"So old friend I hope you are not annoyed with me, but you know I love to rattle those bigots. Honor and a long life to you and please keep an eye on Harry for me. Oh and if you want you may stay because I think a few of the following things will amuse you."

A bit shocked the Centaur bowed to the Image of his old friend "I will Padfoot, I will." Then he trotted back to the rear of the room to continue watching the reading. With a smile he waited sure that the reading would only get more amusing if he ever knew old Padfoot at all.

After the chatter wound down again, Kitanaiel pressed the second button on the device she had been given and the image of Sirius continued. "That was fun, wasn't it?" He smiled in the direction of Harry.

"And now I have an even better prank for you. My dear cousin Narcissa, would you please come forward?"

He waited for a moment and then continued. "You know I always loved you like a sister and was terribly sorry about the marriage to that idiot Malfoy. If you accept it I hereby declare as head of house the marriage contracts annulled, you will be known as Narcissa Black again. You also will get a nice monthly stipend deposited directly into a vault and a nice apartment in London for you to live as long as you don´t use it for anything but yourself. If you use it for your ex husband or your son no further deposit will be made and the apartment will be sold. If you accept this my solicitor will have a document for you to sign."

After another shocked silence Narcissa went to Kitty and simply said, "I accept". Without a word Kitty gave her a document and a pen. After she read the document Narcissa signed it with a small smile and then left the room.

Several hours and people later

"Dumbledore, once there was a time where you were a respectable man and a hero in my mind. But this time is long since past so I give you a thousand times more than I think you deserve, after this reading the Goblins will deposit one Knut into your account. Oh and you may stay for the rest."

At this point Molly fainted.

Next Sirius called upon Remus Lupin

"Moony, old friend you know I always loved you like a brother and was thankful for your friendship. I know you will never accept money from me, so I won't give you any, even if you more than deserve it. Instead I give you a piece of advice. Ask her, she will say yes if I have ever known her. If you ever marry her come back to Kitty she will have a small present for you two."

The image bowed with a grin.

"Now we only have a few things left to talk about. Ms. Granger you are one of the brightest minds I have ever met. I wanted to thank you for the friendship you gave to Harry even after you knew how dangerous that could be. So because of that Kitty has a key to a vault for you, where I put few books and other assorted items for you. Please study them and thank you again for being a friend to Harry and if you want, feel free to stay and keep Harry some company."

A bit astonished Hermione stood up took the key from Kitty and then sat down besides Harry.

"Harry? One moment please then I will come back to you, but first there are still the Weasleys. To all of you thank you for being a small family to Harry for all this time. While I can never repay this kindness Kitty has a key to a vault where you may find a few surprises you will like." After they all took their keys they quickly left because they weren't asked to stay by Sirius.

"Now to you Harry, sorry again that I can´t be with you any longer. I would have liked to see your grow into the man you will be. If Kitty has done her work you will never have to go back to those hate filled people you lived with. Sorry I didn't do this earlier but we needed evidence to get you out of there and to get them punished for what they have done to you. Hmm now to the legacy I have for you. First I thought to make you the new Head of the House of Black, but after thinking about it I decided against it. Why? That's quite easy. First of all you are already the Head of the House of Potter, Kitty can give you some help with what that means for you and second I wanted to give you some kind of normal life and not throw the responsibilities of heading a second House on too you. This faith I will have to put onto someone else who will be quite annoyed about it"

Here the image had an amused smile on the face.

"Harry, what I did for you is simple. I opened a Vault for you like the one I opened for Hermione with copies of the same books. My advice here will be to read and learn from them and if you are as clever as I think you are do it together with Hermione, as I said before she is quite intelligent and can surely help you a lot. I think if you ask her she will be more than willing to help. I think that is the best thing I could do for you. I also have some advice for you. If you try to kick Voledermorts ass don't try it alone."

"Take all the help that is offered to you, but be careful and don't trust Dumbledore too much. He may fight for the light but he often forgets that the "For the greater good" hurts more than it helps. So Harry the only thing left to say is. Kick that bastard's ass, trust Kitty and Hermione and also the new head of house Black and lastly find a nice girl and settle down, have a few kids and grow old. We don't want to see you here for a long while. I love you like a son Harry, be careful and don't forget to have some fun."

The image smirked a bit and then turned to Ms. Bones.

"Greetings Ms. Bones, sorry I made so much work for your Aurors but I didn't intend to go back to Azkaban for something I didn't do. If Kitty gave you the folder you will have by now arrested the Dursleys, for that I have to thank you and it would be nice if you would call HIM after my last statement, to get it over with. Thank you Ms. Bones and be well."

With those words he turned around as if he would look at all who were still there. "Because I was the last Black of my branch of the family the next Head of House would have been the Son of my cousin, but because I annulled her marriage to that bastard Lucius that, lucky for all, can't be anymore. I had to take a few other steps to make sure a suitable heir will be called. Before I made this recording I reinstated the family tree brunch of my Uncle Panis Black. After he married a muggle and went to America my grandfather disowned him thereby throwing him out of the family. I brought his family back in and his last remaining descendant will take over the position as Head of the House of Black after I'm death. "

"Harry you will have something in common with my cousin. Like you he grew up without knowledge of our world because his parents were squibs and not the best parents he could have had. Until now he has no clue about his heritage. His grandfather bound his powers at an early age, because having magic where he grew up could have been too dangerous for him. Sadly my uncle died before my cousin's eleventh birthday and so his power stayed bound. But that will change soon. Ms. Bones now it is your turn. Thanks again."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Notes 1: Tx to Drake the Arch, Remus CD Lupin and DeeRose for looking over the chapter.  
Notes 2: No DD bashing in this one, I'm a bit more nicer to him here, because I still need him later on.  
Notes 3: Keep in mind this story is, as most fanfic, AU and won't follow canon to closely.

Chapter 2

Ms. Bones stood up and nodded to the image of Sirius, but before she could start to speak, Kitty interrupted her.

"Sorry Ms. Bones, I forgot one person who still hasn´t heard why he is here. Mr. Snape, would you please step forward? There is still a part for you and sorry it slipped my mind but it was quite a busy day."

"No problem Ms. Verner, after all it was quite an entertaining day for me so far" said Snape while stepping forward. "But I must say I wondered why I'm here. Sirius and I never liked each other very much. So please go on."

Kitty nodded and pressed one button on the device and Sirius image appeared again.

"Hello Severus, I know by now you probably are wondering why you are here. We never were friends or liked each other at all and I fear we still wouldn't if I was still alive. The next thing is not easy for me, but I have a big favor to ask of you. For the love you had and have in you for Lily please keep an eye out for Harry, don't hate him because he is James son, but at least if not like him please tolerate him for Lily's sake. That's all, thanks for coming Severus " with a smirk the image added "and don't spend too much time in your dungeons you already look like a vampire and my heir may accidentally stake you if you two met."

With those words the image flickered and then disappeared.

With an annoyed expression Snape whirled around and began to storm out of the office, at the last moment Ms. Verner spoke "Mister Snape would you please wait for a second? I still have a key for you from Mr. Black."

Snape turned around again "A key for me? Why would that git have a key for me?"

Ms. Verner shrugged her shoulders "I have no clue, Mr. Black just told me to give you the key before you stormed out of the office." She held the key out to Snape, who took it without another word and then quickly left.

"Moody as ever our little snake" Verner said smiling. "Ms. Bones? Now we are finished."

"Thank you Ms. Verner. So I have to thank you for the file you gave me. My Aurors have already arrested the Dursleys as you could have guessed. Normally we would have given such a thing to the muggle authorities, but because their crimes were against a wizard who is not of age yet we have taken things into our own hands. They will be put to trial soon. About the other Information in the file, we will go through it and check what you gave us. If we can confirm the information you gave us, a few wizards and witches will have a rough awakening in the near future and I also will press my weight behind getting Mr. Black's name cleared posthumously. So how have you planned to inform Mr. Black's heir?"

With a snickering smile Ms. Verner answered: "Sirius suggested sending Mr. Hagrid to do the meet and greet and then to invite his heir to come to England for a meeting with myself. I found that idea quite amusing but for the safety of Mr. Hagrid I decided to send an owl in advance and also to send Mr. Lupin with him. Both have already agreed to that and the owl is on her way."

"Hagrid?" said Ms. Bones "That will be….hmmm…. amusing I think." After she got her laughter back under control she asked. "So I think we are done here the only question left is what happens to Mr. Potter now until the new Head of the House of Black arrives?"

"I could ask the Weasleys, if I can come a bit earlier to them than planned, I think they wouldn't mind that." Harry said in a meek voice.

"Yes, you could do that. But you could also stay here until you had planned to go. So you would have three weeks to study the books Mr. Black left for you. I also offer this to you Ms. Granger, so you two can study together if you want and also Harry we would have time to talk about what it means being the Head of the House of Potter. Because I also was the solicitor of your parents I know a few things." Ms. Verner said.

Harry thought about that for a moment then turned his head to Hermione. "What do you think Hermione? That sounds interesting we would have three weeks to explore Diagon Alley and take a look at the books" the last part sounded not so excited then the first one.

"That would be nice. A chance to study all the books and to also help you with them would be great. But I will have to ask my parents first and what about Ron?" Hermione answered quite excited.

"I have more than enough room in my house here, so I can extend my offer to your friend also, if he wants." Ms. Verner offered both of them. "So if you two are hungry my house elves have prepared something to eat. Just go through that door, I will join you after I said goodbye to Ms. Bones and Mr. Dumbledore."

After the two kids had left the room she turned to the last two remaining people. Ms. Bones quickly said her goodbyes to Ms. Verner and Dumbledore and then left also.

"So Mr. Dumbledore you remained very quiet for the whole reading." Ms. Verner said.

"Yes, I did. I didn't have much to say after you overruled me about Harry and Mr. Black and you didn't seem to be very fond of me."

"Indeed, we aren't Mr. Dumbledore. You are a great headmaster no doubt of that but a few of the other things you tried to handle went terribly wrong. I think you know which things I mean and don't really have to repeat them or do I?" she asked.

"No you don't. I know what you mean. I know it is no excuse but I'm only human after all too. I should have done a few things different and I also will find out why Ms. Figgs reports about the abuse of Harry never reached me. If they would have, I would never have sent him back there." Dumbledore said with a sad tone in his voice. "If you would say my goodbyes to Harry, I will leave you now. " He bowed shortly and then disappeared with a plop into thin air.

Meanwhile in the other room, Harry and Hermione were eating and chatting a bit.

"So Harry, how are you doing? I didn't hear anything in the last week from you after the fight in the Ministry." Hermione asked him with a soft voice.

"Not so good Hermione, I didn't leave my room for much in the last week. I was very disturbed and mourning for Sirius. Then a few hours ago, I got quite a shook as several Aurors suddenly stormed the house, arrested the Dursleys and then took me to this place here. Then seeing the image of Sirius…I think it all just started to sink in and I've been numb for the last couple of hours. But it is great to see you, Ron and the others again. Even seeing Dumbledore again was good, I may be annoyed with him about a couple of things but that doesn't mean it wasn't nice to see him again."

After a small pause and a small sip from his butterbeer glass he continued "So who do you think Sirius' heir will be? Oh and where is Ron? We still have to ask him if he will stay here. If you want you can use Hedwig to deliver a letter to your parents. It would be more than awesome if we could stay here together. It would be great not to have too much time to think about Sirius and to spend it with you instead."

Hermione blushed a bit about the last of Harry's words and then answered. "I have no clue about the heir but I don't think Sirius would make someone his heir who will be like the other Blacks, maybe we could ask Ms. Verner about him a bit. Ron will be back soon, he went with his family to see what surprises Sirius has for them in the vault then he wanted to come back and said something about getting out a bit and also about lots of ice cream for us three" she said with a smirk. "And thank you for the offer, sending Hedwig would be much faster than anything else. I will write the letter after we are finished with our meal."

For a while both of them ate and chatted again a bit about friends from Hogwarts and other things.

A few hours later in Cleveland

A very tired owl landed on the window sill of a window on the second level of a large house and looked through the glass. It saw several girls, three young and one older man sitting in the room around a round table. After resting for a bit it pecked its beak against the window.

Quick as lighting two of the women jumped off their stools, turned around, each holding a wand like stick in her hand, but they looked a bit thicker than a normal wand. In an astonished tone the blond women of the duo asked, "An owl. Giles why is there an owl sitting outside of our window?"

Giles, who was back for a visit from England, lost all of the color in his face at hearing that.

"An owl?" he asked "Are you sure, Buffy?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Note1: Happy New Year to you all. Here is the next chapter.  
Until now it is only corrected by DraketheArch so tanks to you.  
Sadly I didn't hear from my other betas yet so i deiced too don't let you wait any longer.  
But I will fix it after I heard from them.

Note2: If you don't like short chapter please leave now :)  
Note3: Thank you to missinglink for making this chapter more readable again.

Chapter 3

"What do they want from me now, after all that time?" Giles murmured.

"What did you say Giles?" Buffy and Faith asked at the same moment.

Giles looked up again "Uh nothing, please just open the window Buffy, the owl is a messenger and will have a letter for me." He said.

After those words one of the two young men who had drawn a gun (without the girls or Giles noticing) put it pack into its holster while the other still held it with caution out of sight. 'After all it was better to have it and not need it than to need  
it and not have it,' the dark haired man thought.

Meanwhile Buffy went to the window and opened it then she stepped back to make the way free.

With a hoot the owl took to the air again and flew into the room, it flew a small circle over the heads of everyone and then flew in the direction of Giles, but instead of landing near or on him it flew about him and landed on the table were the young men and two of the girls still sat.

It looked at the people at the table, hooted again and then went to the dark haired young man. Suddenly, it held an envelope in its beak (no one could have said later where it came from) and held it in his direction.

"Xander, it seems that the letter is for you" said the red head at table in an astonished tone. "Why do you get a letter from an owl?"

With a mildly astonished tone Xander answered. "I haven't got a clue Will. That's the first time I've seen an owl outside of a zoo."

While cleaning his glasses, (not even he could say when he took them off) Giles said in a relived but curios tone, "Take it Xander before the owl tries to get your attention in some other way, which could hurt a bit."

A bit alarmed Xander quickly took the envelope and read the writing on it.

Alexander Lavelle Harris  
Second story in the room on the right side  
at the table between the werewolf and the geek  
Steiner Drive 332  
Cleveland  
America

"What does it say?" All asked very curious at the same time.

"Guys, I haven't even opened it yet and I think I need something to drink first."

"XANDER!" Willow yelled.

"Ok, ok Willow I am opening it now." He said smiling.

Taking his time, he opened the envelope, took the letter out of it and then started to read it.

After a few minutes, (the others in the room were getting quite gritty) he refolded the letter and put it back into the envelope. While the others were waiting he stood up went to a cupboard on the other side of the room and instead of the soft drink he meant to get before, he poured himself a glass of whiskey (out of Giles private stock) and drank it slowly. Without a word he went to one of the couches and sat down.

Before Willow could say anything Faith beat her to it. While she walked to him and sat right beside him she asked "Boytoy, what's up?"

Xander looked up surprised and saw her sitting right beside him. "Sorry Faith, I think I was a few Giles uhhh, I mean miles away. Here read it out loud for all. I can't at the moment." With those words he gave her the letter and then to Faith's  
surprise he snuggled himself under her right arm and closed his eye.

With a small smile on her face she thought 'Wow, yes we had a long talk a week ago and talked about a lot of things. He also said he had forgiven me a long time ago and wouldn't mind trying to be friends and maybe more again, but this? I  
think this proves more to me that he was sincere than his words did." Lost in her own thoughts she also snuggled herself against Xander. Without her noticing the letter fell down onto the floor.

The room was quite for a moment because all were quite baffled at seeing that scene.

Then Willow squeaked "Xander? What is going on?"

Xander slowly opened his remaining eye "Just take the letter and read it aloud." Then he closed his eye again.

"Not that, Xander…oh of course that too, but I meant what is going on there with you two?"

Faith opened one of her eyes. "Nothing Red, nothing, we're just friends who are enjoying each other's company." She said in a quiet voice.

"Of course you are." Willow answered in a non-believing tone. Ignoring that for the moment she grabbed the letter and started to read aloud.

Greetings Mr. Harris,

First of all I want to say sorry if the delivery method via owl has startled you. My name is Kitanaiel Verner and I'm the solicitor of the late Sirius Black. It is my sad duty to inform you, that your cousin Mr. Black was killed eight days ago in a fight against some "terrorists".

Mr. Black has named you as his heir and so I invite you to England so that we can discuss the parts of his last will which are in regards to you.

Surely, because of the owl, you have already guessed that your cousin was a special human, because of this reason I would like to send two people to you whom can tell you a few more things that I don't want to entrust to a letter. They  
also will provide transportation to England if you accept the invitation. Please send a small letter back via Lurcy here, if you will accept a meeting with my two associates.

With Best Regards,  
Kitanaiel Verner  
Solicitor  
Head of the House of Verner

After Willow finished reading the letter it was quite still in the room, until all eyes went to Giles who suddenly fainted and then crashed down onto the floor.

Dawn quickly jumped to the aide of her sister's Watcher and after rummaging a bit in one of her pockets she held something under Giles nose and with a gasp Giles opened his eyes again.

"Are you ok Giles?" Dawn asked in a concerned tone.

"I think so, what happened Dawn?" he asked her back.

"Uhh nothing, really, you just fainted." She said with a smirk.

"I certainly did not." He said a bit snubbed.

"Yes, you did." All said in union.

Changing the subject Giles quickly said. "So Sirius is kind of surprised and shocked me a bit." He looked around a bit, still very unsettled, until his gaze landed on Xander (who was still snuggled up to Faith on the couch). "I'm terribly  
sorry that your cousin is dead Xander but I'm surprised that you are a cousin of Sirius Black, I knew him from my times as a student in Scotland."

Xander looked up at that "Thank you Giles and I'm surprised too. Until that letter I never knew I had a cousin or any family in England. Wait, you knew him? So who and how was he?" while asking that he snuggled a bit more into Faith's arms  
without even noticing it.

Which doesn't mean the others didn't. While Buffy had an amused smile about that and Willow was still surprised over the development, Dawn and Andrew looked a bit angry at Faith. (The first still hoped that Xander would see something  
more than a little sister in her and the other always had a secret crush for the carpenter.) Oz on the other side looked indifferent as always. (Oz rejoined the gang awhile back after spending a long time traveling the world with the majority  
of it spent in Tibet trying to find a way to better control the wolf in him.)

Giles didn't seem to really notice it, as he started to answer Xander's question, but thought to himself, 'Finally those two are getting on with their feelings'.

Deep in his thoughts Giles answered. "Hmm how can I answer your question without breaking a few vows I have to keep?"

"Vows?" Buffy and Willow interrupted him.

"Yes, there are a few secrets which are not mine to tell, so I will try my best." Giles replied.

"So, I didn't know Sirius that well. We were at the same boarding school together, but I never had much to do with him or his friends. He was the son of a very old and noble family, but he was the white sheep of the family. You have to  
understand that his family wasn't known for its kindness to those they deemed below them. His family was a bunch of snobs. But Sirius was a funny and generally kind man to most, with a few exceptions. He and few friends of his were  
the top pranksters of our generation. Later after we had finished school I didn't heard too much about him because I followed my father's wish and joined the council. Later I read in the papers that he was arrested because he supposedly  
betrayed two of his friends and their child to a known terrorist group and then was arrested after he killed another of his friends. But I never really could believe that story entirely. As far as I knew, he would never have betrayed the Potters.  
The last thing I heard was that he had escaped from prison and was on the run."

"Uhh," Xander mumbled "So my cousin seemed to be a criminal and it appears to be that I'm his heir even though I never heard of him before. So now what?"

"The question is if you want to meet with those two people mentioned in the letter or not." Faith said.

"Hmm, that is a good question I suppose. As long as they aren't British mini Al Capone wanna-be's I think I can at least hear them out. So I guess I'll write back and say yes to meet them."

"That could be interesting." Buffy said and gave him a piece of paper and a pen.

"So go on."

Xander quickly wrote a few words on the letter and then gave it to Giles. "Could you please give it to the owl? I'm not sure it wouldn't bite me."

"Of course" and then Giles took the letter and went over to the table. He petted the owl a bit and then gave her something which the owl munched on for a bit.

After she was finished he gave her the letter. The owl hooted again and then rose into the air. She flew a small circle (and dropped something on Andrew, who squeaked out loud) and the vanished through the window into the black night.

After finally realizing where and how he sat, Xander blushed for a moment and then said quickly to try and divert the others (but giving Faith a smile) "So I think before the owl interrupted us we were discussing something of vital importance,  
weren't we?"

While all were nodding he asked

"So, what kind of pizza do you want?"


	4. Chapter 4

Surprise for you all

Notes for TTH: Hello all, yes I said i wouldn't post here anymore, but I simply got so many emails and reviews I was quite baffled and decided to thank you all with posting Chapter 4 here.  
So my tx to you all.

Author: Corwin Verner (Hawklan)  
Beta: Althalus (many tx to him)  
Summary: The reading of Sirius Black's will and it's aftermath.  
Disclaimer: The Potter-verse belongs to Ms. Rowling, all other persons you might recognize to their creators. All you don´t possibly belong to me. This is written only to get the bunny out of my head and not to make any profit. So if you sue me the only thing I can give you is my negative bank account, but that you can have even without suing me.

Just ask :)

Warning: This story contains some DD bashing, so if you don't like stories in which that happens, don't read on and it is also AU and will not follow canon too much.

Chapter 4

The next morning in the Office of Head Auror Ms. Bones

Janet, the secretary of Ms. Bones, knocked on the door of her bosses' office and without waiting for a reply quickly entered the room. ". As you wished, HE is here and agreed to meet with you. Shall I send him in?" she asked with a quivering tone in her voice.

"Yes, thank you Janet. Send him in please and then block all disturbances until my meeting with him is over."

Janet nodded, closed the door again and then went back to her desk where a man (at least she thought it was a man) in a dark hooded robe, which did not let her see his face, stood waiting.

"Ms. Bones is ready and awaits you." She said to the man. Who just nodded in her direction and then entered the room to meet with the Head Auror.

After he entered the room Janet sat down and pulled a small bottle out of her desk. Shivering she poured some of it in a glass and thought.

`If this man wasn't scary I'm no witch at all'.

Meanwhile in the next room

The man closed the door behind him and while he got closer to the desk of Ms. Bones he waved his hand in a circle like motion around the room. After a small blue glow appeared for a moment around all the walls, windows and doors he spoke in a raspy voice, "Greetings Head Auror, you have requested my presence?"

"Yes, Mr. Hatten I did." She answered and then continued, "Actually I have two requests of you. Recently I was at the reading of Mr. Blacks last will and from his solicitor I have gotten access to some very disturbing information, while we can handle most off it there are some things which are too delicate to handle by my Aurors and will need the  
gentle touch of the Unspeakables, for my first request please read this folder and then tell me if you will handle it or not." She took a small folder from her desk and handed it to the still standing Mr. Hatten.

After he took the folder he opened it and quickly read the content of it. After finishing he looked up and said to Ms. Bones. "I'm ashamed that we didn't notice this long before and took the necessary steps,but you can be assured that we will handle this matter as quickly as possible." He gave the folder back to the Auror and then asked, "What is your second request Madam?"

"Not really a request, it is more a favor I have to ask of you. You are familiar with Mr. Harry Potter?" Ms. Bones answered him.

"Not really, I never met him but I worked with his grandfather before he died. So what is it you want as a favor?" the Unspeakable said.

After a few moments Ms. Bones looked up to him as if to look into his eyes and spoke, "You worked with Harry's grandfather? Interesting, I never knew that, but back to the favor I have to ask. If the new guardian of Mr. Potter agrees I would like to give him the best training possible because until now nobody really ever prepared the young man in the slightest way for what awaits him and that has to change in my opinion. Because of that I would like to ask you for your  
best man to help train Mr. Potter in the best way possible."

Considering her words for a moment he answered, "I think I have to agree with you. The lack of training he got at Hogwarts is nearly a crime. I think I will train him personally, I still owe his family a debt and I think that will be a start to pay it back. Send me an owl if his guardian agrees and I will talk with them."

He nodded in her direction and then turned around. Before he left the room he waved his hand again and the glowing light reappeared for a moment. "Farewell Ms. Bones." With those words he left the room.

A day later in the house of the Verner family

After Ms. Verner let Ron into the house he quickly burst into the study room where Harry and Hermione should be if he understood the woman correctly. He looked around for a bit in the big, library like, room until he saw big amounts of books which were all lying on and around a table and several chairs at the far end of the corner with a smile he quickly went to the table and was surprised by the picture which was presented to him. He saw Hermione and Harry lying with their heads on a book while being sound asleep and both were snoring a bit.

With a smile Ron hid behind a bookshelf, drew his wand and mumbled a few words he had learned from the twins a while ago.

For a few seconds nothing happened but then a bodiless voice which sounded exactly like Professor Snape bellowed "Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger….what do you think you are doing?"

Within moments both heads rose abruptly, first with an expression on their face just as a deer caught in the headlight of a car and then with confusion after they could not see the Professor anywhere. Both looked at the other and spoke at the same time. "What was that?"

After both had looked around some more they suddenly heard someone starting to laugh behind the bookshelf near them. Both rose from their chairs and went to the bookshelf. After Hermione finally saw who was laughing she yelled, "RONALD WEASLEY are you completely out of your mind? How can you do something like that?"

Ron who was still laughing answered, "Oh man you should have seen your faces, quite hilarious I think I have to thank my brothers for that spell. By the way, Ms. Verner told me to inform you that breakfast is ready, and if you ask me we do not want to let it go to waste. I could use a bite or two."

Still fuming a bit Hermione said, "Typical you and food, I always am wondering that all the other students don't starve to death with the amount of food you inhale each meal."

Protesting Ron answered, "Hey I'm still growing and I need the food."

Snickering Harry interrupted the two, "Good to see you Ron, did your parents allow you to spent the rest of the summer with us?"

"Yes, father did after he overcame the shock of seeing what your godfather has left him and mum in their vault. Mum was still out of it when I left to come see you two."

"Really, what did they get?" asked Harry.

"I have no clue, father did tell me but I was a bit preoccupied myself. Sirius left me a Nimbus 2001 and a small amount of money so that I don't have to use second hand school stuff anymore." Ron said with a sad smile.

Hermione and Harry were both stunned for a moment then both said, "Wow."

"So let's go down, I'm starving." Ron insisted.

Laughing all three went down to get some breakfast.

After a rich breakfast they ate together with Ms. Verner or Kitty as she insisted they call her, an owl flew in through the open window after delivering several letters and the Daily Prophet it received a few owl treats and then it flew out again with several letters gave to her.

Ms. Verner looked at the letters for a moment and then disregarded all of them, except one. "Oh Harry, here is the answer from your possible new guardian Mr. Harris."

"Really? What does he say?" Harry asked.

After Kitty quickly read the letter, she reread it aloud.

Dear Ms. Verner,

What can I say? Yes, I am quite a bit shocked, but not about getting a letter delivered by an owl (which was quite interesting by the way)but more about the fact that I had family in England I never knew about and now I shall receive an inheritance from them. Let us say I am quite curious about that, and about the things your assistants have  
to tell me before we can meet. A friend of mine told me a few things about Mr. Black because he knew him at school, so I hope the things they will tell me are not too bad. I will await your assistants,

Alexander Harris

A bit disappointed Harry spoke "No word about me?"

"Oh, that is my fault actually. Because he is a muggle I didn't write too much in my letter and wanted to send Mr. Hagrid and Mr. Lupin to him, to fully introduce him to our world. But it seems he has a friend who is a wizard, which is quite interesting. So he already knows something." Kitty answered him.

"You want to send Hagrid to him?" asked all three asked as one. "Oh dear, that will be quite an introduction into our world then. I wish I could see that." Harry finished snickering.

"Yes it will be, but I think they can handle it better than any stuffy wizard." Kitty said with an amused smile. "For now I will leave you three to do what you like, I still have a bit of work to do."

With those words she stood up, gave them a nod and then left the room.

After she was gone Ron talked a bit about how good the next Quidditch season would go with Harry having a Firebolt and him and Ginny a Nimbus 2001.

"Ginny got one too?" Harry interrupted him.

"Oh yes. Did I forget to mention that? Ups, sorry. She got the same as I, some money for school stuff and a Nimbus 2001." Ron answered with a big smile.

"That is great." Harry and Hermione said happy for both their friends.

"So you two, what are we doing today?" Ron asked.

"I fear for the worst, Ron. Ms. Verner told me yesterday evening that we have until 12 o'clock to do as we please but after lunch she will start teaching me things I have to learn. She also offered for both of you to join in because it will not hurt you two too know a few things more than Hogwarts will teach us all." Harry answered.

While Hermione looked happy to learn new things, as always, Ron looked horrified. "Learning? But we are in the holidays. We have to have fun and not learn things." Ron sputtered out.

"No we don't have to, but you know after we turn seventeen we will be legally adults and I have to take over the responsibilities of the Head of the House of Potter and until now I have no clue about that.

Because no one saw it fit to teach me what I need to know about that and Ms. Verner had offered to help me in that regard. So there is a lot of learning to do until my new guardian arrives and then we have to see. But for now I think we should explore Diagon Alley for a bit." Harry answered not too happy himself about all the learning he had to do.

Quickly all three finished the rest of their breakfast and then left the house. After they walked around for a bit in the Alley Hermione said, "Harry, Ron, did you see all the people around here who look a bit shocked while holding the Dailey Prophet in their hands? Maybe something happened."

Ron nodded "Yes, I saw them too." He quickly strode into a small shop and came back several minutes later with a shocked impression on his face and a Prophet in his hand. After he reached them, Harry took the paper and Hermione looked over his shoulder, both reading the Headline and the following article.

MINISTER FUDGE FOUND DEAD IN HIS OFFICE

SUICIDE OR MURDER BY YOU KNOW WHO?

We had a shocking event to witness this morning. Our own reporter Ms. Skeeter had a meeting scheduled this morning with our dear Minister. She arrived quite punctual to the meeting and already found the Ministry in quite an uproar.

She saw many Aurors in the building and after several tries did she get a statement out of one of them. The auror told her that Minister Fudge was found dead this morning in his office by his secretary.

Apparently he had hung himself because he could not live with his guilt anymore, which was suggested by a suicide note the Aurors found at the scene. Sadly the content of that note was not given to our Ms. Skeeter because of the ongoing investigation.

While mourning for our dear Minister we will keep you, dear reader, informed as soon as we get new information.

Harry, Ron and Hermione only looked shocked at each other.

End Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Note: This chapter is not beta read, so don't hang me for errors just point them out to me and I fix them.

Chapter 5

Cleveland in front of the entrance to a small mansion

Two strange looking men appeared with a small plop out of nowhere and crashed down onto the ground. One was tall but leanly built and the other one was quite big or better actually huge. Both wore clothes that were already out of date years ago.

While pulling an umbrella out from under him the huge one asked, "Uh, what happened Remus?"

The one called Remus started to answer, but was interrupted by the voice of a girl who came out of the trees that were around them. "Stop there, trespassers, you are surrounded and several crossbows are aimed at you. Make one threatening move and my squad will fire. What are you and that troll doing here?"

"Troll?" Hagrid roared. "I am no troll young miss. I am Rebeus Hagrid, the Keeper of Grounds of Hogwarts and this is my friend Professor Lupin." He continued in a quieter voice than his roar.

"That really tells me nothing big guy and that still leaves the answer to why you tried to enter our premises without asking first." The young voice said.

Remus, who had stood up very slowly answered, "Sorry Miss, the American Ministry failed to inform us that the grounds here are warded against Apparition. If we had known, we would have appeared a distance away and would have announced ourselves, instead of trying to appear before the front door and knock and to answer your question, we are here to talk with a Mr. Harris. We came from England to talk about his inheritance."

"Oh you are those wizards from tweedland? Yes, the Scoobies are waiting for you. Please follow us." Eight young girls appeared out of the trees. All of whom were armed with crossbows, swords and several other weapons.

"Scoobies?" Remus asked.

The young voice, which belonged to a black haired girl that Remus would say was around six- or seventeen, answered. "Yes, the Scoobies are the inner circle of the Council."

"The Council?" this time Hagrid asked in a confused voice.

"Yes, the Council of Watchers." The young lady answered again.

Shocked, Remus asked, "It is still there? I thought its headquarters blew up several years ago and most of the watchers were killed in that explosion or were killed by demons and don't tell me you are all potentials? "

"Yes, it was blown up and a lot of watchers were killed. But the Scoobies rebuild the council and now it is much better than before and no, we're not all potentials." The girl answered him.

Remus let out the air he had held in at hearing that.

"We are Slayers." The girl continued.

"WHAT? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE." Remus shouted in total surprise.

"No it is not, but now, follow us. You can ask the Scoobies about all that. We still have to finish our patrol." The girl said and went into the direction of the mansion.

While following the girls Hagrid asked Remus in a silent tone (at least silent for him). "Slayer? I always thought the Slayer was a myth."

Remus answered him "Yes and no, the council always was a secretive bunch, but the Slayer is real. I worked for the council on several occasions as an advisor in magical things."

After that answer they had already reached the house and the girl knocked on the big door.

The group leader and the two men entered the house after the door was opened. They entered the house and the men saw several young girls lingering around in the living room. Suddenly those girls jumped from whatever they did and pointed several weapons in the direction of Hagrid. One asked in a surprised tone, "A troll?"

Hagrid started to grumble a bit, but the girl who led them here yelled, "Stand down. They are visitors and the big guy is no troll. At least he says he isn't." she added smirking.

After the slayers in the room had stood down and snickered about the grumbling Hagrid the young girl spoke again, "By the way I forgot to introduce myself. I am Indra, one of the Slayers living here. If you would take a seat," she pointed to a big couch, "I will go and try to find Mr. Giles for you."

Remus looked up and asked, "Giles, as in Rupert Giles?"

Indra who was already turning around to leave the room stopped and answered, "Yes, do you know him?"

"Yes, I do. It looks like my boss forgot to tell me about him." With a smirk Remus continued, "Please tell Rupert that Mooney is waiting for him and it is never a good idea to let a Marauder wait for too long, you never know what ideas a Marauder gets when he gets bored."

Indra nodded and then left the room.

A few minutes later, Giles entered the room and it took him a few seconds to locate the two guests. After he looked around again he finally saw them besieged by a couple of slayers which bombarded the two men with one question after the other without giving them a chance to even answer one of the questions they were asked.

Smiling Giles said in a loud tone, so that he could overcome the noise level, "Remus, don't corrupt our girls! We have more than enough to do with them, without them becoming marauders in training."

Remus turned around, "Rupert, good to see you, you old snake. Could you please free us from your girls? Please?"

Smirking Giles said, "Girls leave them be. I have to talk to those two gentleman, but you can have them later."

With faked terror in his voice Hagrid said smirking, "Rup you are evil."

Leaving behind the throng of giggling girls, Giles lead the two wizards out of the room and into his study.  
After they entered the room, Remus felt a few wards going up. With a raised eyebrow he looked to Giles, who answered. "A small necessity, to keep too curious girls from listening into what we have to talk about, most of them don't need to know about the wizarding world."

"I can only second that, as Slayers they have more than enough to do with demons and such things." Remus agreed. "So what happened? Normally there is only one Slayer, how does it come there are dozens now?" he asked.

"I fear my friend that is a long story." Before he could continue he was interrupted by the voice of Xander. "We were fighting the first evil and my friend Willow did a spell. Now all potentials are Slayers."

"Or not that long." Rupert sighed. Then he continued, "If I may introduce you. Xander, these gentlemen are Rebeus Hagrid and Remus Lupin, the two assistants of Ms. Verner. Remus, Rebeus this gentleman is Alexander Harris, our head watcher and the man you two wanted to see."

Xander shook hands with the two wizards, "So I finally get to know why Giles made such a big mystery about him being a wizard, a hidden world of magic and so on?"

The three wizards were shocked for several moments. After a while Giles asked, "You know? How?"  
"Giles, what kind of watcher would I be if I can't dig out a few well hidden secrets? That is not important now. I guess you two wanted to tell me that my cousin was a wizard also and to tell me about your world?" Xander said.

Hagrid nodded "Yes, Mr. Harris. Those are two of the reasons why we are here, but there are also a few more. "

Xander nodded, "I thought so, but before you continue let us get Faith. She will want to hear that also."  
Giles looked confused and asked, "Faith? Why would she want to hear that?"

"Because she already knows all from my side of the story and because I want my future wife to know about all the things that are about me." Xander answered.

Giles said to that. "XANDER! You can't tell everyone about the wizarding world and…" there he stopped and then "wait…..what did you say? Future wife?"

"Yes I did." He said, smirking, while he slipped out of the room.

Giles sat there for while and then smiled. "Finally, that was about damn time."

Before any of the three could start a conversation, the door opened again and Xander entered again, this time with Faith at his side. "There we are, now your friends can continue."

Giles raised his hand in a stopping motion, "One moment please, there is something I have to do first." He stood up went to Faith and hugged her. "Congratulations Faith."

"Uhh, did I win the lottery or what?" Faith asked confused.

Before Giles could say anything, Xander said. "Thanks Giles, I was going to ask her this evening."  
"Ask me what?" Faith said suspicious.

"I wanted to ask you if you will go out with me tonight. I found a nice restaurant we could visit." Xander answered.

"But you already asked me that yesterday." Faith said confused.

"I did? Oh man it looks like all the things are getting to me. So we have a nice dinner this evening." Xander said smiling.

Hiding a smirk Giles sat down again and took over the introduction of Faith and the wizards. "So I think now we can continue?"

All nodded and Remus took the opportunity to start. "Mr. Harris, we were sent here to tell you about the wizarding world and to tell you that your cousin was a wizard. As we can see you already know about the first and guessed the second one, but there is more. You Mr. Harris are a wizard and.." here he was interrupted by the giggling of Faith and Xander.

"What?" asked Hagrid. "It's true you are and…" Xander interrupted again "I know Mr. Hagrid. I am a wizard and my grandfather bound my powers when I was four, and then made me forget all about wizards and such things until my graduation."

Giles was baffled, "But how and why did you never say anything? And why are your powers still bound then?"

"First, they are not. Just masked and as I said until we blew up the Mayor and the school, I knew nothing about all those wizard things, but in the evening of that day the ghost of my grandfather came to me and told me about my heritage, the wizarding world and a lot more. He also unbound my power then. At least for a while, but that is a different story I will tell you later."

Giles started to talk but Hagrid was a bit quicker, "Good then that point is clear also, but I think we have at  
least one point you don't know about yet. " He said smirking.

"Yes?" Xander asked interested.

"As you know, Mr. Black has mentioned you as his heir in his last will. The details of all that will Ms. Verner tell you but if you accept you will be the new head of the House of Black. With all the rights and duties, and one of your duties would be to take the guardianship of Harry Potter."

"Oh, that is indeed a surprise." Xander said a bit shocked. Giles just nodded to that.

"So tell me something about this Harry. Who is he?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Chapter 6

Hagrid stared at Xander for a moment, "You don't know who Harry Potter is?"

"No I don't, should I?" Xander asked. "As I said before I only learned that I am a Wizard after we killed the mayor and after my road trip, where I got trained by a friend of my grandfather, I only had seldom contact to the wizarding world. Wizards tend to avoid towns where a hellmouth resides most of the time so the nearest community near Sunnydale was in LA and Cleveland also has no community."

After that Hagrid and Remus told them the story of Harry's life and what happened so far.

Several hours later they were finished and looked at a very angry Xander and Giles also looked like he wants to go into "Rippermode" as Xander called it ones.

"Ohh, I think I have to come to England only for the reason that Harry won't be under the thump of that old bastard any longer and I think I will have a few words with him and your so called Minister of Magic."

Giles just nodded and added to that, "I think I am suddenly very homesick and will join you Xander if you don't mind."

"No, I would like that and I think you can keep me from torching those bastards. We will leave in the morning, please excuse me for now, because I have to get ready for the evening." Xander stood up and nodded to his two visitors. "I think you can stay here if you want, but if you decided to leave today please inform your Ms. Verner that I will arrive sometime tomorrow to speak with her and I would be grateful if you could arrange a meeting with Harry before that so that I can get to know him a bit and ask him if he wants me as a guardian at all."

"We will leave soon and arrange both meetings. I think Harry will like it to meet you and to be asked of his opinion, that hasn't happened to often in his live. Now I wish you a successful evening with that young lady," Remus answered him with a small smile.

"Thank you," said Xander and then turned to Giles. "Giles could you do me a favor while I am going out with Faith? Please talk with Willow and Buffy about all that and please ask Willow to prepare a few things to open an operation center in wherever I will live in England."

Then Xander nodded to the three men and left the room. He quickly went upstairs to his rooms and after entering he groaned out loud. "Oh no…." and got the answer "Ohh yes Xander. We have a few questions," said Willow who waited together with Buffy and Dawn in his room.

"Please you three, I know you have questions, but I am in a hurry and we will talk later in the time being Giles will answer your questions as far as he can." Xander said in a pleading tone.

"No, Mr. Wizardwhonevertoldus we talk now," Buffy said.

"Ok If you really want to, but as I said before I am in a hurry so…" he stopped talking and started to collect a few things for a shower and then to undress.  
"Ahhhh what are you doing?" Buffy cried and but her hands with her slayer reflex before Dawns eyes.

"Hmm getting undressed so I can take the shower I need before my date?"

"Date? What Date?" all three asked.

"Ok your three if that is your questions for now," said Xander with a smirk "I'm going out with Faith and will ask her to marry me." Using the speechless silence Xander vanished into his bathroom and starts his shower while he heard a few moments later a "WHHHATTTT?" out of his room.

Grinning to himself he enjoys his shower and after 15 minutes he leaves the shower, dressed and went back into his room where the three girls still waited for him. "You are still here?" he asked in an innocent tone, "ohh and I think I forgot to mention that I will leave to England with Giles tomorrow."

After a shocked moment he heard a "Whattt?" again.

Smirking he starts to leave his room.

"Where do you think you are going Xander? We are not finished," said Willow.

"Sorry you three, but I really am in a hurry because letting Faith wait is never a good idea. Go to Giles he will tell you what he knows," Xander smirked and left the room.

After closing the door he quickly pulled his wand and cast a disillusioned charm on himself and the pressed himself flat to wall and not a second too early.  
As he predicted the door to his room was opened so fast that it hinges will need a fix and Buffy and Co stormed out while calling "Xander, stop there right now."

Not seeing Xander in the floor Buffy stopped so suddenly, Willow and Dawn ran into her. Fighting with her balance for a moment she said, "Damn, where did he go?"

"No clue. I think we should go to Giles to get more answers," Willow answered while looking directly at the spot where Xander stood stock-still. With a smile she took Buffy and Dawn and pulled them in the direction of Giles office.

After the three women left Xander took a deep breath and thought a 'Thank you, Willow.' Then he quickly went to Faith's room and knocked at the door.  
"Come in," he heard Faith say through the door.

So he opened the door and went in, just a couple of steps into the room he stood stock-still again, because he saw a vision of beauty before him.  
Faith stood there with her beautiful long hair in a short black dress most women would kill for to be able to wear something like that, breathless he heard Faith say.

"Didn't I say come in? Don't just open a door and then don't come in," she said a bit annoyed.

Looking a bit confused Xander answered, "Faith you look awesome."

"Xander?" Faith asked while looking around.

Suddenly Xander remembered and with an "Upps," he canceled the charm.

Pulling a reflexive strike Faith said a bit angry, "Don't do something like that Xander. I could have killed you."

"Sorry Faith, I just forgot to cancel the spell after I escaped the Summers Squad of Interrogation," Xander smiled and then asked, "Are you ready Mylady?"

"Mylady?" Faith asked smiling, "Are we going British already? But yes I am ready."

"Good," Xander said and without any difficulties they left the building, it always paid off to bribe a few SIT's to help him distract noisy people.

A long drive through the traffic of Cleveland, in a nice limo Xander rented for the occasion, they arrived at the restaurant. After the driver opened their door and they both left the car Faith said, "Xander, what are you doing? I thought we go to a small little restaurant and not a five star establishment like this one, this is too expensive."

"Faith, you know the Council pays well and I saved for this occasion for a while. So please just enjoy it and later we can go dancing if you want," he answered her.

Smirking Faith said to that, "I will Xan, I will, but dancing? You?"

"Hey, I took lessons you know." Xander grumbled a bit.

Still smiling they entered the restaurant and after a short introduction were quickly taken to their table.

After a first glass of champagne and an appetizer Xander took carefully a deep breath stood up and then knelt before a surprised Faith. "Faith, you know my future took a different path today than we all thought and I don't really know what will await me in England, you already agreed to come with us and I am happy about that, but in the last couple of months I realized that you are more than a good friend to me and I would like to enter this new adventure with you as my wife besides me. So Faith Lehane will you marry me?" Xander said and held a small open ring case with a small ring in it to her.

Faith was speechless, she had fallen in love with Xander shortly after the fall of Sunnydale and after she ditched Robin, but never had the nerve to act on it because of their not so stellar history in the Dale. She was quite happy about the friendship they had built in the last and a half year since he became her watcher, but she never expected that. Smiling to herself she thought, 'The time in jail had made me soft.'

Seeing many emotions flash through her eyes, Xander still waited for her to answer. It took her a moment and then finally she took a breath to answer him, but before she could say anything they heard a loud crack, a couple of masked men appeared in the restaurant and green light started to fly through the room.

End notes: Yes I know, I'm evil ending the chapter like that, but hey at least here is a new chapter. I hadn't planned to write anything for a while because I just was not in the mood for it. So you can thank the nice review I got on Tenhawk's ficsitedotcom today for finishing this partly written chapter. Before I go for now, this chapter wasn't beta read by anyone so any errors are mine and if you find them it would be nice if you send me a mail so I can fix them.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Notes: Before I start let me say something. WOW, I turned on my PC the morning after posting the last chapter to check mails before going to work and there I found many mails about received reviews and I have to say thank you to all of you who left a review or just liked to read the story so far. I never thought it would be that well received and I also want to say a special thank you to Lucifiael and Tenhawk who also both left a review for my story. Why thank them specifically? That's easy those two are the main reason I'm addicted to fanfiction *g*so check out their stories if you haven't yet. Now I have babbled enough on with the story.

Chapter 7

The same evening in London, House of Ms. Verner

Remus and Hagrid arrived back early in England, while Hagrid returned straight to Hogwarts to care for his animals, Remus took a taxi from the international apparition point at Heathrow to the House of Ms. Verner. Using the driving time through London traffic to catch a nap, he arrived at the house later. It took him nearly an hour to tell Kitty what he had learned in Cleveland.

"Ohh boy, Remus, I think the wizarding world of Britain won't know what hit them after Mr. Harris has taken his seat has the Head of the House of Black." Kitty said trying to suppress some giggling but falling completely in that task. "Now, I have something's to prepare before Mr. Harris arrival and also some helpful suggestion for him if I guess correctly what he will be trying to do here. You should go downstairs to the library and tell Harry all about what you learned in Cleveland. I think he will like to hear these things before his new guardian arrives."

"He is in the library?" Remus asked astonished.

"Yes, he spends a lot of time in there to learn about all what he needs to know with the help of Hermione and Ron. Some distraction would do them all good." Kitty answered.

"I think I can do that," Remus said smiling. "See you later, Kit."

Dodging a charm she threw at him he quickly left her office laughing.

A short moment later he reached the library and being cautious around a marauder or the son of one is always a wise thing to do he knocked at the door and then entered.

Entering he saw three faces looking up to him.

"Professor Lupin," Hermione yelled.

"Remus," Harry said in a cold tone and Ron just nodded to him.

"Hello you three, I think it's time for a break. I just returned from America and have quite a tale to tell you about the man who may become your new guardian. If you are interested meet me in the living room where I can tell it while we have some tea." Smiling Remus turned around and left the library, while hearing behind him the noises of books being shut and three teenagers rushing behind him.

Nearly an hour and several cups of tea later Remus had told them all what he had seen in Cleveland.

"The Slayer? Wow, I always thought that was a legend." Hermione said.

Remus nodded and said, "Yes, that what most of the wizarding worlds believes or was made to believe."

"Made to believe?" asked Harry.

"Yes, I think you will find a book with the title 'The foolish Maggrot', it is a tale about a wizard who tried to control a Slayer in Romanian times wish nearly destroyed the wizarding world of that time. It quite an interesting tale to read," Remus answered Harry.

Before someone could say anything else, Hermione stormed out of the room.

"Uhh I think I know what our next reading stuff will be," Ron snickered, "at least that will be something interesting."

"What, you mean the Quidditch Weekly you hid in your book isn't interesting enough?" Harry grinned.

"I have absolutely no Idea what you are talking about Mr. Potter," Ron answered with a smirk.

"So Remus, when will my guardian to be arrive?" Harry asked.

"Tomorrow, he was surprised with this entire situation like you are and he already had very important plans for tonight or else he would have come directly, I guess. Because he wasn't very happy about what we told him about what happened here in England," said Remus while nipping on his tea.

"Important plans?" Harry asked curious after hearing what Remus had told them.

"Depending on who you ask, nothing world endy or so," Remus answered with a chuckle, "he is just going to ask the Slayer to marry him."  
"Oh boy, which one? You told us there where dozens of them," Harry asked.

"Technically there is only Faith the Slayer and then there are dozens of slayers." Remus said and seeing the confused faces of Harry and Ron he explained with a smile, "you see Ms. Summers stopped being the Slayer as she drowned in a pool, as she died the Slayer spirit left her and went to the next girl. After Mr. Harris revived her with CPR, she still had all her abilities she had as the Slayer because the spirit changed her body as it entered her and as Ms. Rosenberg did her spell to activate all the other slayers they just had the spirit long enough to activate them, after that it returned to the current Slayer Faith."

"Uhh okay," Harry said, "thank you for telling me all this and I'm quite curios about meeting my new guardian, but now I have a lot to think about and I think Hermione waits in the Library for us. See you for dinner?"

Remus just nodded as Harry and Ron left.

A five star restaurant in downtown Cleveland

Not exactly knowing what the green light meant which was speeding on to her, Faith grabbed the vase on the table and one of the knives and threw the first one in the way of the green light and the second was throw quickly thereafter. The green light hit the vase which exploded into thousand little pieces and the knife hit the wizard into the wrist of his wand holding hand, so that he dropped the wand with a painful cry.

While this action, thankful to Faith's slayer reflexes, only took a short moment she saw how Xander dropped to the floor to dodge another green light. Sadly two other customers were to surprised and were hit by the green light of the last two wizards, both instantly fell down to the floor with broken eyes.

Getting enraged about the careless murder of another young couple, which only wanted to enjoy a nice evening, Faith grabbed one off the other knives on the table and using her slayer speed she tried to get to one of the wizards which were starting to spread out to cover more ground.

Meanwhile

Still on his knees waiting for Faith's answer Xander heard and then saw four masked wizards appear in the middle of the restaurant who instantly pointed their wands on another young couple, Faith and him and all four yelled an 'Avada Kedavra'. Trusting in Faith to take care of herself Xander let himself fall completely to the floor to avoid the spell which was speeding to him and then he tried to banish something, with his own wand, into the way of the other two spells to save the other couple, but sadly he wasn't as fast as a slayer and he was a moment to slow to save those poor young people, but his, first on an Halloween gained and then trained, solider reflexes took over at the same time and with his other hand he pulled his gun and with two loud bellows he let two shots loose.

Faith heard the bellows off two shots, but meanwhile she nearly reached one of the wizards and had no time to look around, because said wizard just threw another spell at her, this time she saw sickly red light. She nearly dodged it, but it still hit her in the shoulder and hurt like hell. Pressing her teeth together she hit after the wizards wand arm, but because the wizard pulled his arm back a bit she hit his wand directly with the knife and because she used a lot of her slayer strength the wand snapped into two pieces and the following magical explosion threw her back a bit and suddenly the world turned black for her.

After firing his gun Xander jumped up and quickly saw that he hit one wizard directly between the eyes and the head firmly exploded, the second one he had hit in the right shoulder which suddenly had quite a nice hole in it and the wizard fell to the ground before he suddenly disappeared. In the time the wizard vanished he saw Faith being hit by a spell and how she sliced the wand of the wizard in half. The following explosion threw Faith and the wizard through half the restaurant. Crying a quick 'Stupefy' at the still remaining, but wand-less wizard, he ran to Faith which was lying still in the middle of a broken down table and because this all only took a few seconds the other guest were only now registering what has happened and panic broke out.

Not seeing a chance to get to Faith without hurting the now panic full and fleeing guests he apparated the short distance and reappeared directly besides her. Fearful he quickly knelt besides her and tried to feel her pulse.

Luckily it was still there, he let out a deep breath he had not realized he had held. He then quickly closed the bleeding wound with his wand and then revived her.

With a loud moan Faith came back to the land of the living, "Ohhh, I hope you have the number of the truck, Xander."

Leaning down and giving her a relived kiss he answered grinning, "Damn, I knew I forgot something in the fight. Shame on me I fear the truck got away."

He helped her up to her feet and then both looked around. They both saw a nearly trashed restaurant room. "Xander what the hell was that?" asked Faith while she was hurrying over to the couple which lay on the floor. She quickly looked over them and checked for their pulse, "Damn, those two are dead."  
"Yes, I feared that. They were hit by the killing curse and those four looked like those creeps Remus described. You know, of this terrorist group wish called themselves Death Munchers or something like that?" answered Xander while moving over to the two unconscious wizards.

He pulled his wand back out of its holder and stunned both of them again, naturally just to be sure and then grabbed two napkins. He quickly wrote "Code Alpha-Blue, Xander." on both of them and then pointed his wand on each. "Portus," he spoke and then threw one napkin on each of the wizards. Just a second later both disappeared, after that he conjured a small misty hyena which quickly speeds away.

"Xander?" Faith asked.

"I just send them back to Giles, he will 'store' them until we are back and I also called for some Aurors," he answered.

"Aurors? That were the wizard policemen right?" Faith asked again.

"Yes, they will have to clean up this mess," hearing sirens he continued, "and they will have to clear it with the normal authorities. I just hope they arrive before them," he said while sitting down to wait.

But because we are talking about Xander here, they naturally did not arrive first. Only a few minutes later the finest of the CPD entered the restaurant carefully with weapons drawn and as they saw Xander with Faith in his arms sitting at a table waiting, the weapons were aimed at them and one of the officers called,  
"Freeze."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Note: Sorry for the long time it took me to post this chapter, I did a lot of other work for a few authors and .com and so simply forgot to finish this one. Shame on me and enjoy, but be warned this is not beta read, so if you find errors please send them to me via email and I fix them asap.

Chapter 8

Xander and Faith slowly raised their hands into the air, „Hello Officer, would you be so kind and point your guns somewhere else, please? One of the attackers lies over there," Xander slowly pointed in the direction where the dead wizard lies, "and their victims over there," he said with a sad tone and pointed to the dead couple.

"What, happened here?"asked the officer in front.

"Four terrorists entered the restaurant and started shooting and before we could act they already killed the couple over there. After I shoot the one there and had wounded the others, they fled." Xander answered.

"Terrorist and who are you?" asked the officer again.

"Yes, terrorist and it looks like they were after me and my partner here, but only had a rough description so they attacked the other couple and us. So would you please call you Detective over here so I can talk with him? I fear I have to declare this as a matter of national security and already called my colleges they should arrive shortly.

"You still haven't answered the question of 'Who you are'," another man, who just entered the room, asked, "by the way I'm the Detective you asked for, Detective Jerry McQueen.

Xander nodded and answered, "Sorry Detective McQueen. I'm Agent Jake O'Neil and this is my partner Agent Daniela Jackson, NSA."

"NSA? What are you doing here and I hope you can prove that?" the Detective said surprised.

"Of course, if we could lower our hands," said Xander.

The Detective just nodded and Xander slowly lowered his hands, carefully he pulled a small wallet and showed the Detective an NSA ID.

The Detective studied the ID and the nodded. "Looks fine to me, what are we doing now, Agent O'Neil?"

"It would be nice if your men would gather all available witnesses and bring them into the adjoined room, so that my colleagues can interview them after they arrived," Xander said.

As if this were the magic words the door to the restaurant opened again and four men dressed in black suits entered the room. They looked around for a moment and then came into the direction of Xander, Faith and the Detective.

As they arrived one of the four pulled an ID and showed it to the detective, "Good evening, I'm Agent Smith and I would like to talk too those two, detective. Could you help my colleagues to gather the witnesses? Thank you," said Agent Smith and clearly dismissed the Detective with those words.

He waited for a moment and after the detective left he asked, "OK, Mr. Harris. What happened here that you had to call in a wizard team?"

"We were attacked by a squad of Death Eaters," Xander answered.

"Death Eaters, here? I can't believe it," said the Agent.

"Then look over there and you will find the Mark on his arm Mr. Smith," was Xander's answer to that.

The Agent slowly kneeled besides the body and rolled up the arm of the robe and there he saw it, 'The Mark of a Death Eater', after nodding to himself he stood up again.

"So it's true those idiots attacked someone on our soil. That will give us something to talk about with the Brits. You said something about a squad? Where are the rest?"

Xander nodded and answered, "Two escaped wounded and one is in our custody."

"Your custody?" Agent Smith blinked.

"Yes, I sent him via Portkey to our HQ and into a holding cell," said Xander.

"Mr. Harris, you have to give him into our custody at ones," the Agent said in an angry tone.

"Nope, no can do Mr. Smith," Xander said smiling. He loved to rile up those guys.

"What? I will arrest you for hindering our investigation," shouted the enraged Agent.

"No, you will not," Xander said, smiling even more while Faith looked to him with a curious glance.

"That's enough," the agent yelled and turned his head to his colleagues on the other side of the room, "Mark, Jim help me arrest those two," he shouted while he suddenly had his wand in his right hand and pointed it at Xander.

"Tstst, Mr. Smith. Where are your manners? Put your wand away and call your goons back or you are responsible for starting a two front war for the American wizarding world." Xander said with an amused grin.

"What?" Agent Smith muttered.

"Attacking me or Faith would bring you to war with the Council of Slayers and attacking the Heir of the most noble house of Black would be an act of war against Britain," Xander said in a quiet tone.

Hearing that from Xander, the Agent blanched a bit and had to swallow a lump in his throat.

"If you would have let me explained in the beginning without starting to yell I would have told you that I can't give the Death Muncher to you because their attack went against two members of the COS, the heir of the Watchers Council and with that they fall into our jurisdiction as you can read in the Wizard/Council agreement from 1792. We invite you to join us while we question him, but nothing more. So hurry up here and then we can go talk to that slimebag," Xander said to the Agent.

Tidying up and changing a few memories from the witnesses, like the use of a wand to the use of a gun. The NSA Agents left the restaurant together with Xander and Faith.

Turning to Agent Smith Xander said, "So if you want to join us, meet us at our HQ in a few hours or so. We will be there and wait for you." With those words he turned around and went together with Faith to the still waiting limo. After the driver closed the door behind him Xander took a slow breath and said to Faith. "Sorry, Faith, that wasn't how I planned the evening to go."

He sagged into his seat a bit while he thought about the death couple.

Faith musters him for a moment and seeing that he started to think about not so good things she slowly got near him and started to kiss him.

Xander sat stock still in his seat and mumbled, "What are you doing Faith?"

Amused Faith answered him, "Hmm looks like I'm kissing my future husband."

Xander blinked for a moment and asked dumbly, "What?"

"I couldn't give you my answer in the restaurant and now I am correcting that," she said smiling and started to kiss him again.

Two hours later, after they told the driver to take a detour, they reached the compound.

Still in the car and a bit ruffled, a smiling Xander asked Faith, "So I can interpret that as a 'Yes' can I?"

"Hmm I think you can do that Xander," Faith answered smiling.

"Great. Now I have to find more questions for you that you have to answer with 'Yes'," Xander said grinning.

Slapping Xander's head Faith said grinning, "Be careful where you ask those questions, I might deliver on the spot."

Both left the car after they were dressed again, thanked their driver and then entered the building.

They had not even closed the door before they were nearly overrun by a bunch of girls which were all yelling things like "What happened? Are you hurt? Who is the guy in the cellar?" and many more.

Faith yelled even louder, "Quiet!"

After the noise died down she continued and pointed at the SIT Indra, "You, go get Giles and tell him to meet us at the cells and the rest of you scatter you will be informed as soon as we know more."

Without a word the first girl ran out of the room yelling for Giles and the rest of the girls scattered around the room, discussing and guessing what had happened.

In the time being Faith and Xander went downstairs to the cells were Giles joined them shortly after.

"What happened and who is our guest?" Giles asked.

Xander quickly filled him in about what happened in the restaurant and closed with the words, "So I have no clue yet who he is only that he is a wizard and one of those Death Suckers."

"Ahh than the interrogation will have to wait for a while, because of the treaty we have with the wizarding world a representative of their ministry has to be present to witness it. I will contact them and there will someone here in the morning. You two should get some sleep and we will see to it in the morning." Giles said to them.

"No need G-Man. The agents who came to the restaurant should be here soon and they can act as witnesses for their ministry. So we relax here for a moment and while we wait the snooping spy for the SIT's over there can bring us some coffee." Xander said while pointing at the corner on the end of the corridor.

So they waited for half an hour and then one of the girls brought the three Agents from before to them.

"Ahh Agent Smith and company, nice to see you again so quickly, now we can start to ask some questions to the guy we captured," Xander said smiling.

They all entered the cell where the Death Eater was held. Xander used his wand and quietly directed the body of the Death Eater on one of the chairs and unfroze his head.

As soon as Xander did that the Death Eater started to yell, "What is this outrage. I'm Lucius Malfoy a citizen of the United Kingdom and I demand to be released immediately or there will be dire consequence. "

Xander nodded, "Ohh you are right Lucy there will be, but not for us but for you. While you attacked us you also killed two American citizens."

"Pahh... Muggles. Who cares?" snorted Malfoy.

"Actually, I care," was Xander's answer.

"And who are you, boy?" Malfoy snapped.

"Ohh I? I am the guy who you and your Death Socks attacked and if I may introduce myself. I'm Alexander Lavelle Harris, Watcher for the Council of Slayers, wizard and heir to the House of Black. If there would be a next time you should ask your so called 'Lord' first who you have to attack instead of blindly following his orders and I think you can guess what will happen now to your line," Xander said while smiling a bit unfriendly at him.

Malfoy went white like chalk.

"Ah, you do, don't you?" Xander and the other wizards smiled while Faith and Giles looked confused.

After a few moments Faith asked, "What?"

"Oh simple, Mr. Malfoy here attacked the heir of an ancient house without provocation from their part and then he was stupid enough to be caught. Would he just have been a member of the Malfoy family, the family would have to pay a huge fee to the Blacks as punishment and to discourage further attempts like that, but he is not. Mr. Malfoy here is actually the head of his house and after wizarding law he started a war between the House of Black and the smaller House of Malfoy. Sadly for him, he lost in a magical fight and so the House of Malfoy will be integrated with all their belongings into the House of Black." Agent Smith answered Faith's question.

Malfoy yelled, "NOOOOO, you can't do that."

Mr. Smith grinned, "Ohh yes, we can. While we speak here for a bit, my colleague there will go and report in and also start the paper work and by the coming of the next morning there will be no more House of Malfoy."

At those words Malfoy collapsed shocked into unconscious.

After the Agents took over Malfoy, Xander, Giles and Faith went to their rooms to get packed, time was now a bit crucial because their flight to London would leave in a few hours, but luckily they always had emergency bags packed so they just added a few more things and quickly met again for an early breakfast, which they enjoyed in a companionable silence. Lucky most of the rest of the house was still asleep, including Willow and Buffy.

After they finished their breakfast they called a Taxi and quickly drove to the airport.

End of Part one of this story.

Endnote: OK I think that is a good point to end the first part of this story and I hope I find some time soon to start the next part.

The End


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